The most widely cultivated crops of the Poaceae family are sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and maize (Zea mays). The word Poaceae is derived from the Ancient Greek πóα (póa), meaning “fodder”. The stalks of crops in the Poaceae family have been used as animal fodder for millennia. These stalks are eaten by ruminants, including cattle, sheep and goats, because ruminants can digest cellulose and hemicellulose. These stalks also contain sugars in the storage parenchyma cells and sometimes contain lesser amounts of starch granules in the storage parenchyma cells.
The sugars in these stalks have long been used to produce table sugar and molasses, and have long been fermented to ethanol to make drinking ethanol (e.g. rum) and fuel ethanol. These stalks are also often ensiled by sprinkling them with lactic acid bacteria, a process that preserves the stalks for up to a year as animal feed and that makes the stalks more digestible by ruminants.
Ensiling has been practiced for about 200 years since it was discovered (in Germany) that when one chops grasses and compresses the chopped grasses so air is kept out, that the chopped (ensiled) grasses don't “spoil” (i.e. smell like vinegar). Even today, ensiling grasses and other crops of the Poaceae family involves first chopping the stalks into small pieces about 12 to 25 mm long, then sprinkling with microorganisms (mostly lactic acid bacteria), then compressing the chopped stalks to keep air out.
This only works because the sugars can diffuse to the cut surfaces of the chopped stalks so that the lactic acid bacteria can consume the sugars. Most yeast and most lactic acid bacteria aren't motile (can't move on their own), so sugar must diffuse to them (these microorganisms can't swim to where the sugars are). Because they aren't motile, and because the stalks of the Poaceae family aren't easily penetrated by microorganisms, stalks must be either chopped or crushed to let the sugars diffuse to the microorganisms.
Sprinkling microorganisms and enzymes onto chopped or crushed stalks only deposits microorganisms and enzymes on the outer surfaces of the stalks. The cracks that are formed when stalks are chopped or crushed contain air bubbles that remain fixed in the cracks, preventing microorganisms and enzymes from being deposited within the cracks when sprinkled on the stalks. Since yeast and lactic acid bacteria aren't motile, and since the diffusion of enzymes and microorganisms is extremely slow, the penetration of the stalks by yeast, lactic acid bacteria and enzymes is poor.
There's a need in the art for a solution to this problem of incomplete penetration of the stalks by yeast, lactic acid bacteria and especially enzymes.